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IT’S A LONG WAY TO THE TOP (IF YOU WANNA ROCK & ROLL)

As explained in this brief pitch above, my project aim is promoting a stoner rock band starting from a local area and turning it into a reality as much global as possible. I will use mainly the new marketing techniques that the digital era provides us and which haven’t been exploited in my region yet and finally I’d like to organize a tour in the North Continental Europe to promote their record! I will be assisted by a staff that will produce audio/video materials, photographs and a webdesigner.

I found very useful using this pitch and the whole Enterprise module work, because they helped me to better understand the way forward and concentrate on the focal steps that I will develop in the next months to make this project a tangible reality.

Music industry evolution and key factors

The music industry is not going digital..It’s gone digital!!! CD’s sales are rapidly dying, music listeners have definitively changed their consumption behaviour, especially within the young consumer target. This report made by UK Music clearly shows this trend: http://www.ukmusic.org/assets/media/uk_music_uni_of_herts_09.pdf

Probably, music industry in a first moment made a mistake focusing its attention only on piracy issues, not trying to drive the change in progress and forgetting the most important marketing rule: the central role of the consumer. However, for the first time after 13 years music business is growing again and “the internet [that] sank this industry, is now helping it to resurface” as explained in this article that The Economist published just a week ago. The whole industry is changing and music production and distribution are changing consequently: the DIY approach is becoming a dominant way for artists to enter the market and find new (more difficult) ways to reach their audiences. One of the most interesting examples I can bring to you to show this trend is about an Australian band called Hiatus Kayiote that the last year reached good levels of success in a few months without the help of any record label but using an independent production and promotion strategy. I wrote about them in a previous post.

According to Amanda Palmer the key factor that leads to success in the DIY approach is the kind of relationship artists engage with their own audience. Art is a dialogue, is giving and receiving at the same time, both for musicians and the audiences. Moreover, audiencies receive music, a live experience and a direct contact with the artist they like, but at the same time musicians can better understand audiencie’s needs and receive a direct feedback from them, improving their product. This video from a TED conference is really illuminating:

This is true especially when you produce art for a peculiar niche and my project is not an exception.

My business model will be based on The Long Tail model exposed by Chris Anderson and I’m going to study more in deep his theories to develop my project.

Super oil 69 – Target market and the next steps

Super Oil 69 is THE band! They play good and they play it loud! If you like stoner rock you’ll love ’em!! They have an unique style, that mixes hard rock, southern rock and acid tones with stoned feelings!! Listen to their music here! superoil69.bandcamp.com

Stoner rock has become very popular in Europe during the last decade, establishing itself as one of the most important niches in the rock/metal music industry. This kind of music is appreciated, played and produced mainly in the North Continental Europe, where a huge number of stoner festival is organized and where the majority of fans communities are settled. Consequently, this will be the main market to talk with, especially when I will organize the tour! However, this is my final purpose and now we’re just at the starting point. Building a music business project is a very slow and patient work, made of infinite steps that lead to the next level and this is a key factor especially from a financial point of view. The next month the band will begin the recording sessions and in the meanwhile I will develop the social media platform that will be the base for the marketing campaign. What is more, I’m well-aware that the use of social media won’t be enough, because there is no band that can reach success without a strong fan base support. At the moment Super Oil 69 has a good-sized fan base despite they are a Sardinian band and these will be the first people to interact with, using Buzz Marketing techniques and the word of mouth power to enlarge the fan base itself on a local scale. Another next step is about networking. We will have to contact venues (that are both customers and promotion acts), other stoner rock bands and for example trying to organize live events together. Networking is probably the most critical step in my project and I’m starting to analyse the market to understand the most important venues where to play and the most influential stoner rock bands both in Italy and in Europe. Fortunately, the band previous works have been appreciated by some important contacts in the market. It’s not enough, but we can count on some radios and festival organizations to help us both in promotion and for live events. An important role in the networking will be played by web music magazines, music blogs and web radios: they will be our web-megaphone. What do you think about the best way to comunicate with media and create a network with them?

As regards the costs and the revenues at the moment we have limited resources but they will be enough to fund the early stages of the project: the internet use is not so expensive fortunately . The most important costs will be faced for the promotional tour that I’d like to fund with a crowd funding campaign and that will create revenues itself with the live events. The success of a crowd funding campaign will depend on the fact that the previous steps will reach the target. As recited an AC/DC song: It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll!!!

Feel free to comment and give me your feedback about the project! Have you got any question or just want to give me an advice? I’d really appreciate it!

Thank you very much for your comment! Yeah.. the point in the NIN case study is that they had a huge fan base when they did this promotional campaign, but it’s really useful and inspiring anyway! Did you listen to the band I’m promoting? I’d like to know your opinion about their music. http://superoil69.bandcamp.com/ Thanks again man!